Me and my self; A Spiritual Journey

Dr.Satyabrata Rout (India)

Chapter-6

Continued……

………………….The night passed by with open eyes. At about 5 PM the students started waking up and prepared themselves for the morning class. (The students were staying in the same hotel). They started their power walk towards la Maloca. Cantara came to picked me up from the hotel as it became very difficult for me to climb up the mountains. After she opened the circle with a welcome note to the Monkey according to the Maya calendar, I took over the session. Last evening before the class was finished I wrote them the Guru Vandana in Sanskrit and told to remember or at least read it thoroughly so that they can repeat after me. So to start with we recited the Sloka as a mark of offering to our Guru.

“Om…Om…Om… Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Gurudeva Maheshwar, Guru sakshat Param brahmam, Tashmai Sri Gurabe Namah… Om…Om…Om”

I have explained them the importance of Guru in the life. The parents give birth; the guru opens the eyes to the world. He who removes all the darkness within and shows the path of light is called Guru. That is why in India we regarded Guru as our second father and performed all the duties for him as we do to our own father. A student asked me what the difference between Teacher and Guru is. To answer to his question I said, “Teacher is not the exact translation of Guru in English. We can’t translate a culture in to other languages, we can adapt it. Teacher is an adapted word of Guru. A teacher teaches but a Guru inspires. A teacher teaches about the subject but a Guru teaches about the life. A student while learning from the Guru adapts many things from him. He carries away the tradition from the Guru and becomes an extension of his master. In India we touch the feet of our Gurus every day before the class starts. It is scientific. By touching the feet we accept and surrender ourselves under him to accept his learning. More over the positive energy of the Guru passes from him to his student which is very much essential to start the work. Guru gives ashirwad (blessings) to his students and without the blessings of the Guru no knowledge could be achieved. That is why we placed him in the position of God”.

After the Guru Vandana, we start the voice exercise classes. We did humming exercises with different body gestures. We worked on resonators and tried to find our suitable resonator in different moods and situations viz. love, fear, anger etc. Then we meditate for some time with a Buddhist chanting. The forenoon session was dedicated to mother earth. We did many exercises related to earth and tried to gain energy from the soil. I divided the class in to four groups and told them to improvise the topic keeping strong relationship with nature, environment and earth. The topics should be derived from myth of your land or even they can create myth. After an hour and half they showed me the work which after group discussions and rectification is decided to be presented as a piece of demonstration on the final day of my class. I also suggest them to do a piece from Guayasamin and handed over the book to them which I have kept with me.

Post lunch session was devoted to the discussion and discourse. I have brought with me many recorded versions of Indian classical and folk dances which I played for them. Afterwards I told them about Indian Classical Drama and the origin of Natya Shastra. The students took more interest on the Indian mudras and movements. This way the day’s work was over.

For the next couple of days I worked with them on the oriental gestures of the body realization and its reaction on different emotions. I explained them how to achieve the Rasa. We did many exercises on voice culture. Once the whole night we spent on fire exercises. One day was devoted for water and the body realization. On one Saturday morning we went to the nearby weekly market at Villa de Leyva for observation. On the foothills of this colonial town there were temporary shades for the market which opens once in a week. It was a chilled morning with showers of rain. I rapped myself with worm cloths and started for the market along with the students. We spent nearly half a day there till lunch hour. The market was full of with colours. People with different gestures, postures and facial expressions were busy in the market. We had our lunch at outside that day and I remember Pilar one of the participant of the workshop invited me for a typical Colombian food in a restaurant in the market plaza. After our return from the market the students prepared an improvisation based on the observation of people in the market place.

The time passed like a flying bird. My time slut for the classes came to an end. The students were so much involved in the process that they continued the practices after the dinner till late night every day. Perhaps we all were in search of something unique and special. We are learning about life during these days. We were connecting us with our own self. On 18^th July the students present one demonstration show based on the knowledge they acquired during these days. It was inspired by the oriental view I have injected them. The work of Guayasamin which was a part of the demonstration was a unique experience for me.

The next two days we went on a study tour to Rakira Mountains. It happened to be a spiritual journey for me. We took a bus from Villa de Leyva to Rakira, a town 40kilometers away from Villa de Leyva and is known for local handicrafts. While travelling through a bus on the hilly roads of Colombia I interacted with the typical Colombian mountain ranges for the first time. Though I had been her for so many days, I was busy in my work and could not find time to see nature perfectly. Here through the window of the bus I saw the wavy sky lines formed by high rising mountains around the horizon. There were rows of Cyprus trees rising high on the both sides of the road. It reminded me the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, a 19^th century Scottish painter who had an obsession to paint the country side landscapes with full of Cyprus trees. This particular highway had a strong resemblance with the European landscapes. Out of curiosity I asked someone sitting beside me to know more about this landscape. To my astonishment I came to know that these Cyprus trees were not the native flora and fauna of Latin America. They were brought by the Spanish from Europe. These vegetations adapted America as their home land and grew copiously throughout the mountains in the country over the years. One very important thing was revealed during our discussions regarding these mountains. Millions of years ago these landscape of Boyaca was under the sea. During the course of time the level of water went down and the mountain range was revealed. That is why large numbers of fossils of the ocean animals were available in the mountains. I came to know that there is a big fossil museum established by the government in this locality near Villa de Leyva. A life size fossil of a Cronosaurs is kept there for public viewing. I took interest in it and planned to see the museum one day during my stay here………………………..

Continued…………………………………..

Satyabrata Rout/University of Hyderabad/ India.